Toni Kroos Praises Real Madrid for Bouncing Back After ‘Worst Performance’ Against Eibar

Toni Kroos praised Real Madrid’s ‘mentality’ as they bounced back from their defeat against Eibar on Saturday – a performance which the German described as the worst of his time at the club – with a Champions League win against Roma.

Real lost 3-0 to the La Liga minnows in the first match since Santiago Solari was appointed as permanent manager at the Santiago Bernabeu.

On Tuesday, they produced a positive response by beating Roma 2-0 in the Champions League to guarantee top spot in Group G, and ?Kroos was pleased with the mental strength of the team.

“It’s all about mentality to try and stand up after a defeat like [the one against Eibar],” Kroos told Jan Aage Fjortoft (via ?Twitter). “Before that, we had three or four good matches and we thought ‘ok, we can have a good run now’.

“And of course, the game in Eibar was maybe the worst performance I’ve seen in my four and a half years here. But the important thing is to show, three days later, that you’re a good team. We played better than Saturday, although that was not difficult.”

Despite winning comfortably against the Serie A side in the end, ?Real were given a huge let-off in the first half when Cengiz Ünder produced one of the misses of the season, skying his shot over the crossbar from point-blank range.

“We were a bit lucky that Roma didn’t score the goal before the break,” Kroos admitted. “But I think we had a very good game, especially in the second half and deserved the win.”

Real, who are 6th in La Liga but only six points behind leaders Sevilla, host Valencia on Saturday.